Sig Christenson is a veteran military reporter who has made nine trips to the war zone. He writes regularly for Hearst about service members, veterans and heroes, among other topics. He is also the co-founder and former president of Military Reporters and Editors, founded in 2002.

U.S. Army North

06/20/2013

Army Lt. Col. Todd Clark was born in Albany, N.Y., but came home to Texas for good Wednesday.

Shot dead over the weekend by an Afghan National Army soldier, he was flown to San Antonio International Airport. There, a white-gloved U.S. Army
North honor guard slowly took his flag-draped casket off a jetliner to a
hearse as GIs and a Southwest Airlines pilot saluted. A ground crewman,
among about eight workers in all, held his right hand over his heart.

“There was silence on that tarmac and not one Southwest employee was moving,” said Lt. Col. Tim Beninato, an Army North spokesman. “And some put their hands over their chests, their hats were off and there was complete respect and reverence.”

Clark was a Texas A&M University graduate. His family decided
to bring his body to San Antonio because the school was a big part of
his life, Beninato said. On Friday, Clark will be buried at Fort Sam
Houston National Cemetery.

Clark, 40, of Evans Mills, N.Y., near Fort Drum, was on his second
tour in Afghanistan after surviving a roadside bomb attack there in July
2010, the Albany Times-Union reported.

He was an instructor with the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan
and already held a Purple Heart when he was killed Saturday by one of
the men he was training.

Wearing dress blue service uniforms, the Army North contingent was led by its deputy commander for support.

03/12/2013

U.S. Army North commander Lt. Gen. William Caldwell IV, who oversaw missions at critical junctures in Iraq and Afghanistan, will retire from the Army this year.

He'll leave San Antonio for his native Georgia, where he'll become president of Georgia Military College.

“We
have made some absolutely wonderful friends and relationships that will
endure well beyond our departure,” Caldwell said in a letter revealing
his retirement from Army North, also known to many here as the 5th U.S. Army.

A
former 82nd Airborne Division commander, he oversaw the dramatic growth
of Afghan security forces from 2009 to 2011. Those forces in his tenure
went from 190,000 soldiers and police to about 330,000.

03/06/2013

The budget sequester has claimed another casualty — this year's San Antonio air show.

Joint Base San Antonio cited the Air Force's decision to cancel the Thunderbirds'
2013 season, which starts April 1, in making the announcement Tuesday.
It noted the Air Force's participation in such public events as air
shows and flyovers at military funerals already had been dropped.

“We knew that, we knew it was coming,” said Richard Perez, president and CEO of the Greater San Antonio Chamber of Commerce,
which has spearheaded Celebrate America's Military Week for 43 years.
“It was disappointing. It was such a fantastic event for families in
particular, but we will move on.”

The Air Force Thunderbirds or Navy Blue Angels often are the
highlight of the annual show, which usually takes place in the fall and
draws more than 100,000 spectators.

Previous budget cuts grounded last year's air show, and officials
here had planned to hold the event every other year starting in 2013.
But the Air Force training command doesn't know if there will be a local
air show in 2015.

The show had been in limbo since $46 billion in across-the-board cuts
mandated by the budget sequester took effect Friday. Those cuts will
affect services ranging from border protection to air traffic control,
and will trigger 22 furlough days for civilian Defense Department employees.

The furloughs begin next month and will affect 20,127 civilian
employees at Joint Base San Antonio. The first furlough letters go out
March 21, and employees will start four-day work weeks April 25.

With the air show gone, U.S. Army North and other commands were reviewing options on how they'd support San Antonio's annual Fiesta, now six weeks out.

Joint Base San Antonio spokesman Brent Boller said he'd heard no official word about the matter. Army North's Col. Wayne Shanks said the services were talking about what they could and couldn't do this year.

“Those that don't cost a lot of resources we'll try to support as
best we can,” he said. “It doesn't cost much for a band to march in a
parade.”